2 CT Hospitals Named Among 'Best' For Maternity Care In New Report

CONNECTICUT — Two hospitals in Connecticut made the grade in a new ranking of the Best Hospitals for Maternity Care for 2023-24 released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.

The ranking of 680 hospitals nationwide is a guide for parents making one of the most important decisions of their lives — where their baby will be born. Each hospital participating in the U.S. News survey received a scorecard describing their performance on a checklist of items parents look for when choosing where to have their baby.

Jennifer Winston, a health data scientist for U.S. News, said the top hospitals in the survey are those with a “high performing” designation for care given to patients with uncomplicated pregnancies. These hospitals had Cesarean Section rates of 26 percent or lower and newborn complication rates of 37 percent or lower, Winston explained in a news release.

Of the 16 Connecticut hospitals that participated in the U.S. News maternity services survey, the following received the high performing designation:

Hospital of Central Connecticut is a general medical and surgical facility in New Britain. It is rated high performing in stroke care as well as maternity services. The evaluation of Hospital of Central Connecticut also included data from Bradley Memorial and New Britain General.

Stamford Hospital is a general medical and surgical facility that particularly excels in orthopedics, along with maternity services. Heart attacks and heart failure are also among the facility's strong suits.

New to the rankings this year is the inaugural “Maternity Care Access Hospitals” list, which highlights 73 hospitals providing services in what otherwise would be maternity care deserts that have “left millions of people without local access to maternity care” in some parts of the country, Winston said.

Other Connecticut hospitals that completed the U.S. News survey, but did not rank as “high performing” were:

• Bridgeport Hospital
• Charlotte Hungerford Hospital
• Danbury Hospital
• Greenwich Hospital
• Hartford Hospital
• Lawrence and Memorial Hospital
• MidState Medical Center
• Norwalk Hospital
• Sharon Hospital
• St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center
• St. Vincent's Medical Center
• UConn John Dempsey Hospital
• William W. Backus Hospital
• Yale New Haven Hospital

The hospitals are ranked on objective measures of quality. Including C-section rate, lower-risk pregnancies, newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, early elective delivery rates, birthing-friendly practices and transparency on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures. Read more about the methodology.